139237 - Move/Copy context menus should start at current folder, not top level

Status: NEW

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Message Display, enhancement)

Description

[Aleksey Nogin]

IMHO, there is a big locality in the folder structure that is not being
explored. If I am moving message from, say HomeMail_account/Inbox/Incoming/xxx
to HomeMail_account/Inbox/Incoming/yyy it does not make much sense that the Move
To context menu starts at the top level and forces me to go all the way down. In
other words, I am suggesting to make Move To/ Copy To context menus start at the
current folder (or probably - at exactly one level above) with submenus for
going up and down.

E.g, in my example, HomeMail_account/Inbox/Incoming/xxx, Move/Copy could show
something like:

*Incoming*     
Parent -------> *INBOX*                   
--------        Parent ---------------->  *HomeMail_account*                 
xxx             --------                  Parent -------------> (usual top-level
yzz             Incoming -> (usual menu)  -------                menu with all
                Outgoing -> (usual menu)  INBOX -> (usual menu)  accounts).
                Some_Inbox_subfolder      Sent
                                          Drafts
                                          Trash

Comment 1

[David Chaiken]

The feature proposed by Aleksey addresses the spatial locality
in folder references.  That is, if the last message was
filed in folder A, then it is likely that the next message
will be filed into folder A or another folder that is near to A
in the folder hierarchy.

There is also consideral temporal locality.  That is, if one
of the last N messages that was filed in folder B, then it
is very likely that one of the next M messages will also go into
folder B.  Aleksey's feature works for N=1 and M=1, but not for
larger values, which result from interleaved threads.

While I hesitate to praise any M$ product, Outlook has a
useful feature that takes advantage of the temporal locality.
The File/MoveTo menu lists the previous 10 folders that received
a message (by drag & drop or the File/MoveTo menu).  This list
captures a large fraction of the subsequent messages.

Seth: IMHO, if you decide to implement Aleksey's feature to take
advantage of spatial locality, it is also worth implementing a
feature that addresses temporal locality.

Comment 2

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

xref bug 105062 -- not a dupe, but close to it.

Comment 3

[David Chaiken]

I withdraw my comment on this bug.
The Quick File extension for Thunderbird
is a much better way to get the functionality
that I want than the Outlook feature.